Docudharma Times Monday July 7

Bubbles, Bubbles, Bubbles

The G-8

Doctors Press Senate to Undo Medicare Cuts



By ROBERT PEAR

Published: July 7, 2008

WASHINGTON – Congress returns to work this week with Medicare high on the agenda and Senate Republicans under pressure after a barrage of radio and television advertisements blamed them for a 10.6 percent cut in payments to doctors who care for millions of older Americans.

The advertisements, by the American Medical Association, urge Senate Republicans to reverse themselves and help pass legislation to fend off the cut.

How to pay doctors through the federal health insurance program is an issue that lawmakers are forced to confront every year because of what is widely agreed to be an outdated reimbursement formula.

Wall Street faces the bears of summer

Unemployment, inflation quash second-half rally forecasts

By Matthew Goldstein, Ben Steverman and Ben Levisohn

Business Week

The first six months of 2008 ended with U.S. stock markets in the dumps. Now, with the major indexes in or near bear market territory after touching highs in October, hopes for a happier second half are fading fast.

A toxic brew of sluggish economic growth, rising unemployment, and spiking inflation-otherwise known as stagflation-is prompting market watchers to backpedal furiously on earlier predictions of a rally later this year. Noticeably absent from the discussion are the traditional stock market drivers of strong earnings and interest-rate cuts, neither of which seem to be on the horizon.

USA

With Pride, Californians Step Up to Fight Fires  



By CAROL POGASH

Published: July 7, 2008

ELK, Calif. – When he spotted a small fire two weeks ago atop a steep hill outside this blocklong town, Charlie Acker, 57, the president of the local school board and a volunteer firefighter, jumped inside his stubby red 1965 fire truck and, with a skid and a prayer, drove up the nearly vertical incline to check out the situation.

Knowing that every other volunteer firefighter in this community of 100 residents was battling a larger blaze nearby, he used his cellphone to call his wife. She roused a crew of young kayakers who cater to tourists in this picturesque old logging town at the edge of the Pacific, some 140 miles north of San Francisco, and joined Mr. Acker on the line.

The state fire agency, CalFire, had promised to send a helicopter, but just as Mr. Acker was waiting for the whump-whump of the blades, it was diverted, he said, “to a higher rent district” in another county.

Conservatives Ready To Battle McCain on Convention Platform



By Michael D. Shear

Washington Post Staff Writer

Monday, July 7, 2008; Page A01

Conservative activists are preparing to do battle with allies of Sen. John McCain in advance of September’s Republican National Convention, hoping to prevent his views on global warming, immigration, stem cell research and campaign finance from becoming enshrined in the party’s official declaration of principles.

McCain has not yet signaled the changes he plans to make in the GOP platform, but many conservatives say they fear wholesale revisions could emerge as candidate McCain seeks to put his stamp on a document that currently reflects the policies and principles of President Bush.

Middle East

One wall, two very different views – life on either side of the great divide

It has been called a ‘wall’, a ‘security fence’ and an ‘obstacle’ to terrorists. When it is finished it will run 450 miles and will have cost Israel around $4bn.

Rory McCarthy

The Guardian,

Monday July 7, 2008

Israeli side: Alfe Menashe

Six years ago, when Stan and Joyce Freedman retired they left their home in Edgware, north London, took Israeli citizenship and bought a plot of land on a hilltop in a small but popular sun-drenched Israeli community where their daughter already had a house. They built a three-bedroom home with a breezy patio offering views to the east across the hills of the West Bank and west towards the apartment blocks of Tel Aviv and the Mediterranean beyond.

They named their new home Tulip Cottage and attached a sign next to the front door, which reads in part: “We have no enemies, only friends.”

“There was nothing here when we first came to this street,” said Mr Freedman, 75, who worked as an executive driver in Britain, chauffeuring senior businessmen and politicians, including many high-profile Israelis. Sitting in the shade of his patio he described how the house was constructed to their specifications in just six months

Iraqi Shiite Party rises as Sadr falls

The Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq aims to capitalize on the disarray within Moqtada al-Sadr’s movement ahead of parliamentary elections planned for October.

By Sam Dagher  | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

from the July 7, 2008 edition

NAJAF, Iraq –  At a teeming rally in this holy city last Thursday, thousands of Iraqi Shiites made an election pledge.

“We are at your beck and call, Hakim,” they shouted in unison to Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, leader of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI), arguably now the country’s most influential and best organized Shiite religious political party.

Mr. Hakim told the crowds stuffed inside a soccer stadium: “We call upon you to take part in the upcoming provincial council elections…. Choose competent and trustworthy candidates … and beware of the return of Saddamists in disguise.”

The rally to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the “martyrdom” of ISCI founder Muhammad Baqer al-Hakim, killed in a Najaf car bombing, effectively kicked off campaigning for the party ahead of parliamentary elections that are supposed to take place in October.

Asia

Japan creates fortress for G8



By David McNeill in Hokkaido

Monday, 7 July 2008

The picturesque lakeside resort of Toyako in Hokkaido, Japan’s northern island, is the setting for this year’s Group of Eight summit, which kicks off today smothered in the one of the country’s largest security operations ever.

About 21,000 police have been deployed to protect the leaders of Japan, Britain, Germany, Canada, France, Italy, Russia and the United States. Destroyers and aircraft are patrolling off the coast and a no-fly zone has been imposed over the resort, amid fears that a hijacked plane could be crashed into the mountain-top Windsor Hotel Toya, where the leaders are staying.

Tibetan monasteries empty as China jails monks to silence Olympic protests



From The Times

July 7, 2008

Jane Macartney in Beijing

Chinese authorities tightened security around Tibet’s main monasteries and banned visits to a sacred site on the edge of the capital, Lhasa, for fear of a fresh outburst of unrest on the Dalai Lama’s birthday.

Few monks remain, however, in the province’s three most important monasteries. Many have disappeared, their whereabouts a mystery. Chinese officials have deployed troops and paramilitary police around the ancient religious institutions, suspecting these sprawling hillside communities are at the heart of the unrest that has swept the region since early March.

Dozens, possibly several hundred, have been arrested or are detained and under investigation for their roles in the anti-Chinese demonstrations and riots that hit Lhasa on March 14. This, however, does not account for the empty halls in the three great monasteries, Drepung, Sera and Ganden, that lie near the city. Several hundred monks are believed to have been living in each of them before the violence erupted.

Africa

Sierra Leone’s ‘family talk’ heals scars of war

Inspired by childhood memories of community rituals, human rights activist John Caulker treks across Sierra Leone to reconcile war crime perpetrators and their victims.

By Jina Moore  | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

from the July 7, 2008 edition

Kailahun District, Sierra Leone – John Caulker might know the rough, red-rock roads of rural Sierra Leone better than he knows the hallways of his own office in Freetown, the seaside capital.

There, streets are crowded equally by people and piles of trash – a sign, in its own unintentional way, of abundance. Kids hawk candies, shammies, pirated DVDs, and cellphone chargers. They tease you, in the heat, with cold Cokes and baggies of drinking water tied tight at the top. An hour in traffic – a rather common way to pass an hour in Freetown – and you can do a day’s shopping from your car window.

Here, to the east, in the villages where Mr. Caulker has done human rights work for 10 years, neither goods nor income are disposable. Every kid’s belly seems to sag for lack of food. All that can be found for sale are staples – cassava, mangos, rice. Then there are the signs of the brutal, decade-long civil war: Abandoned houses, some clearly shelled, stand apathetically along the road. In one village, a rusting tank, its cannons sometimes used as makeshift laundry lines, sits at a crossroad, inscribed hopefully, “For Sale!”

Militia attack Zimbabwe displaced

Armed militia have raided two camps for people fleeing post-election violence in Zimbabwe, opposition and medical officials have said.

The BBC

Several people were killed in one attack in Gokwe, north of Harare, the opposition said.

In Ruwa, near the capital, masked men beat up and abducted people who had previously sought refuge at the South African embassy, a witness said.

At least eight people were taken to hospital, the witness said.

About 400 people have been sheltering in local squash courts in Ruwa after being moved on from the South African embassy.

The opposition Movement of Democratic Change says 5,000 of its members are missing and more than 100 of its supporters have been murdered since elections in March.

Europe

Gravy train goes deluxe for MEPs’ Strasbourg trips

 

By Vanessa Mock in Brussels

Monday, 7 July 2008

A gleaming new, high-speed train solely for MEPs launches today. The service, linking Brussels with the French city of Strasbourg, is being inaugurated by France in the hope of stamping out criticism of the “travelling circus” that sees the entire European Parliament, uproot to the capital of the Alsace region for one week a month at a cost of €200m (£158m) a year.

France, which holds the European Union presidency, argues the train will make the relocation cheaper and environment-friendlier as it will replace six costlier charter flights. A 2,500-strong army of staff, officials and interpreters makes the 280-mile trip each month, accompanied by 15 truckloads of paperwork, generating 20,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions a year.

Sarkozy’s Union of the Mediterranean falters





By Steven Erlanger

Published: July 6, 2008

PARIS: Perhaps the grandest new idea of President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, looking to give his presidency of the European Union a lasting stamp, is the Union of the Mediterranean. An effort to bind the 17 nations bordering the Mediterranean with the European Union around specific regional projects, the Union will be inaugurated next week at a grand Paris summit meeting, to be followed by France’s Bastille Day celebrations.

But as with so many of Sarkozy’s grand ideas, the execution has been haphazard. His impulsiveness created resistance among vital allies, like the Germans and the Spanish, and confusion within his own government.

The result is thin, showy stuff. But the fault is not simply his own.

Latin America

‘First Stop in the New World’ by David Lida

Unflinching prose reveals Mexico City’s inner life — its pleasures, pathologies and class conflicts.

By Reed Johnson, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

July 7, 2008

How many times have you picked up a memoir by some American or European nomad living the good life abroad, and wanted to toss the entire volume out the window after about, oh, two paragraphs?

You know the type of book: a self-congratulatory saga of how the middle-aged author, suffering from chronic First World malaise, cashed in his tech stocks, fled the L.A. or New York rat race and escaped to some exquisite little corner of Provence or Marrakech to raise organic squash, commune with natives and find Enlightenment.

Thankfully, “First Stop in the New World,” David Lida’s engaging and sanguine tour of the economic, social, cultural, political, culinary and sexual boulevards and back alleys of Mexico City, isn’t that kind of book.

Asia-Pacific

Climate change report like a disaster novel, says Australian minister

· Scientists predict 10-fold increase in heatwaves

· Greenhouse gases blamed for half of rainfall decrease

Barbara McMahon in Sydney

The Guardian,

Monday July 7, 2008

A new report by Australia’s top scientists predicts that the country will be hit by a 10-fold increase in heatwaves and that droughts will almost double in frequency and become more widespread because of climate change.

The scientific projections envisage rainfall continuing to decline in a country that is already one of the hottest and driest in the world. It says that about 50% of the decrease in rainfall in south-western Australia since the 1950s has probably been due to greenhouse gases.

Yesterday, Australia’s agriculture minister, Tony Burke, described the report as alarming and said: “Parts of these high-level projections read more like a disaster novel than a scientific report.”